The Cosmic Viewpoint

A Study of Seneca's 'Natural Questions'

Gareth D. Williams

Offers the first detailed, systematic treatment of all eight books of the 'Natural Questions' in English

Provides novel readings, with detailed interpretation of Seneca's Latin, of many passages within the 'Natural Questions'

Argues for a new emphasis on the essential artfulness of the 'Natural Questions,' and of Seneca's promotion of a highly original form of physico-moral discourse in this work

The Cosmic Viewpoint

A Study of Seneca's 'Natural Questions'

Gareth D. Williams

Description

Seneca's Natural Questions is an eight-book disquisition on the nature of meteorological phenomena, ranging inter alia from rainbows to earthquakes, from comets to the winds, from the causes of snow and hail to the reasons why the Nile floods in summer. Much of this material had been treated in the earlier Greco-Roman meteorological tradition, but what notoriously sets Seneca's writing apart is his insertion of extended moralizing sections within his technical discourse. How, if at all, are these outbursts against the luxury and vice that are apparently rampant in Seneca's first-century CE Rome to be reconciled with his main meteorological agenda? In grappling with this familiar question, The Cosmic Viewpoint argues that Seneca is no blinkered or arid meteorological
investigator, but a creative explorer into nature's workings who offers a highly idiosyncratic blend of physico-moral investigation across his eight books. At one level, his inquiry into nature impinges on human conduct and morality in its implicit propagation of the familiar Stoic ideal of living in accordance with nature: the moral deviants whom Seneca condemns in the course of the work offer egregious examples of living contrary to nature's balanced way. At a deeper level, however, The Cosmic Viewpoint stresses the literary qualities and complexities that are essential to Seneca's literary art of science: his technical enquiries initiate a form of engagement with nature which distances the reader from the ordinary involvements and fragmentations of everyday life, instead centering our
existence in the cosmic whole. From a figurative standpoint, Seneca's meteorological theme raises our gaze from a terrestrial level of existence to a more intuitive plane where literal vision gives way to 'higher' conjecture and intuition: in striving to understand meteorological phenomena, we progress in an elevating direction - a conceptual climb that renders the Natural Questions no mere store of technical learning, but a work that actively promotes a change of perspective in its readership.

The Cosmic Viewpoint

A Study of Seneca's 'Natural Questions'

Gareth D. Williams

Table of Contents

AbbreviationsIntroductionI. Interiority and Cosmic Consciousness in the Natural QuestionsII. Seneca's Moralizing InterludesIII. The Cataclysm and the NileIV. The Rhetoric of ScienceV. Seneca on WindsVI. Earthquakes, Consolation, and the Senecan SublimeVII. Seneca on Comets and Ancient Cometary TheoryVIII. Seneca on Lightning and DivinationEpilogueBibliography

The Cosmic Viewpoint

A Study of Seneca's 'Natural Questions'

Gareth D. Williams

Author Information

Gareth D. Williams is Violin Family Professor of Classics at Columbia University.

The Cosmic Viewpoint

A Study of Seneca's 'Natural Questions'

Gareth D. Williams

Reviews and Awards

"Williams's exemplary, learned study of Natural Questions, Seneca's rarely read treatise on meteorology complements Harry Hine's translation of this work (2010).... Although the author offers a wealth of insight into Seneca's use of sources, Williams's acumen as a close reader carefully attuned to the rhetorical and literary dimensions of Natural Questions stands out. Highly recommended."--CHOICE

"Sorting styles of reasoning, The Cosmic Viewpoint pilots through joined-up power-thinking from Rome's sharpest, pushiest, writer. Now we can read Seneca on the ecosphere: how-and-why we should try our damnedest to figure out how planet Earth works." -- J.G. Henderson, Cambridge University

"In this subtle and perceptive study, Gareth Williams shows how in the Natural Questions Seneca transformed the genre of meteorological writing in a highly creative way, offering a holistic Stoic vision of the cosmos, where in wrestling to understand the physical world we must also wrestle with our human nature." --Harry Hine, University of St. Andrews

"Offers an extremely convincing articulation of [Naturales Quaestiones's] moral prefaces and interludes with the strictly technical sections of the book." --Philosophy in Review